Press release 15 May 2016
Mass action blocking German lignite mining finishes after 48 hours
*Welzow, Germany* -- Today, activists ended their successful blockade at energy company Vattenfall’s lignite power plant Schwarze Pumpe, Europe’s tenth largest emitter of CO2 after 48 hours. The mass action *Ende Gelände* (‘here and no further’) shut down operations at the lignite mine *Welzow-Süd* and its coal loading station, and cut the power plant off from all coal supplies for 24 hours. Vattenfall lowered the power plant’s capacity by 80 percent. “The action this weekend exceeded all our expectations,” said Hannah Eichberger of the anti-coal coalition Ende Gelände. More than 4,000 people from 12 countries attended the Lusatia climate camp. More than 3,500 people joined the actions of civil disobedience on Friday and Saturday, demonstrating that they’re taking matters into their own hands now to end coal.” Ende Gelände is part of an international wave of actions called Break Free from fossil fuels. Over the past two weeks, thousands of people resisted fossil fuel projects on six continents. Yesterday, activists blocked the Brazil’s largest coal power plant, in Vancouver, Canada, hundreds protested at a tar sands export terminal in kayaks.